Recently, touch screens have been widely used in place of keyboards, and are configured to enable input to be directly made on a screen so that when a person's finger or an object touches a character or a specific location on the screen, the location of the touch can be sensed and then specific processing can be performed using installed software.
Such touch screens can display characters or picture information corresponding to functions in various manners, thus allowing users to easily perceive the functions. For this reason, touch screens have been applied to and variously used for devices for guidance, Point-Of-Sales (POS) terminals for stores, devices for typical business purposes, etc. in various places such as subway stations, department stores, and banks.
A conventional touch screen is configured such that a touch panel is attached to the screen of a monitor and, when a fingertip or an object touches a predetermined region, the generation of user input is sensed by sensing the variation in the characteristics of the region.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the construction of a conventional touch screen apparatus.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional touch screen apparatus is formed by attaching a touch panel to the screen of a typical monitor, and operates such that when a fingertip or an object touches a predetermined region, user input is sensed by sensing the variation in the characteristics of the predetermined region.
The entire conventional touch screen is divided into two-dimensional (2D) grids and analyzes the location of a touch, and is based on an interface scheme in which touches are sensed using capacitance, ultrasonic waves, infrared rays, a resistive film, sound wave recognition, or the like.
That is, since the conventional touch screen is configured in a 2D form in which a display screen and a touch panel are arranged on the same plane, it is impossible to implement a virtual 3D touch screen scheme which enables a free space away from a display to be touched.